Practical Insights into Global Security (GSS523)

GSS523 Practical Insights into Global Security offers students real-world experience through expert seminars, immersive learning, and tabletop exercises (TTXs), interactive, scenario-based discussions designed to simulate real-world security challenges and enable participants to apply theoretical knowledge in practical contexts. Students will engage in a series of TTXs that address contemporary global security issues, including terrorism, cyberattacks, natural disasters, and geopolitical conflicts. Each session will involve scenario development, role-playing, and strategic decision-making, fostering critical thinking and teamwork. Students will learn how to design and facilitate TTXs, assess their effectiveness, and incorporate lessons learned into security planning and policy development. Students will also examine how AI-assisted tools are being used in intelligence analysis, situational awareness, and crisis decision-making, developing the critical skills to evaluate AI-generated inputs, identify their limitations, and maintain sound human judgment under operational pressure. The course will also cover best practices for communication and coordination among stakeholders during crises. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to design and conduct tabletop exercises, critically evaluate AI-assisted intelligence and crisis management tools, and formulate actionable crisis management plans that integrate technology-supported analysis with sound human judgment.

• Principles of Crisis Simulation and Scenario Design
• Risk Assessment and Scenario Development
• Planning and Facilitating Tabletop Exercises
• Strategic Decision-Making in Crisis Management
• Leadership and Decision-Making Under Pressure
• AI-Assisted Intelligence Analysis and Situational Awareness: Capabilities, Limits and Risks
• AI in Crisis Simulation: Scenario Injects, Decision Support and Cognitive Deskilling Risks
• Crisis Communication and Stakeholder Engagement
• Multi-Agency Collaboration in Global Security
• International Cooperation and Coordination in Security Operations
• Conducting, Evaluating and Improving Security Exercises
• Lessons Learned, Organisational Resilience and Future Security Challenges

• Discuss key global security threats and their potential impact on international stability through experiential simulations.
• Appraise the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in global crisis management scenarios.
• Examine crisis management frameworks in simulated exercises to respond to global security challenges effectively.
• Examine the effectiveness of different crisis response strategies and coordination efforts in hands-on exercises.
• Analyse complex security scenarios and strategic decisions made during crisis simulations including the critical evaluation of technology-supported and artificial intelligence-assisted insights.
• Formulate actionable crisis management plans, integrating lessons learned from experiential learning, tabletop exercises and technology-supported analysis.